Insights and Concerns

Adapting to change is an important skill to acquire. I love the fact that everything we are leaning in these methods classes compliments each other towards shaping our very own teaching philosophy! We have been talking a lot about the importance of shifting the balance of classroom power from the teachers to the students; the teachers' serve as guides in the students' learning not just individuals that bark the steps of mathematical computations and demand the students to repeat. We've been talking about how the South Dakota standards are vague; they're too broad being a mile wide and an inch deep of content. If you try to focus on teaching everything then nothing is really important.
Now how is this going to affect my teaching abilities? I believe if my school district adopts an outdated textbook curricilum for math, I will be faced with the biggest challenge of all time. We have been introduced to the NCTM's National Standards which emphasizes the importance of incorporating national standards with state standards in order to develop a decent lesson to teach. I was never really good with mathematics as I have been to the math trailer countless times throughout grade school. I believe that in order to be successful in this class and future classrooms, I am going to have to be vigilant and persistent in applying higher level thinking and reasoning skills in my lessons!